Exhibitions and Curated Stories

Arts Centre Melbourne presents a year-round program of exhibitions and displays that showcase the breadth and depth of the Australian Performing Arts Collection, and its main collecting areas of circus, dance, music, opera and theatre. These carefully curated exhibitions and displays tell many fascinating stories of Australia’s rich and varied performing arts history, and also complement current productions being staged in Arts Centre Melbourne’s venues.

Throughout the buildings and grounds is also a significant Art Collection of twentieth-century and contemporary Australian art on permanent public display for the enjoyment of all.

Objects of Fame: Nellie Melba and Percy Grainger

Walk the road to fame with two of Australia’s most celebrated performers.

Melbourne produced two international stars of classical music – Nellie Melba and Percy Grainger – in the decades surrounding Federation. Objects of Fame showcases these two extraordinary Australians, drawing on objects from Arts Centre Melbourne’s Australian Performing Arts Collection, and the Grainger Museum.

Mirka's Medea

The Australian Performing Arts Collection is custodian of the colourful dramatic masks, costumes and props designed and made by Mirka Mora for the 1979 Hoopla! production of Medea, Playbox Theatre, Melbourne. This small display is a tribute to the unbridled creative spirit of this prolific and celebrated artist, who sadly passed away this year.

10 November 2018 to 14 July 2019
Velik Foyer, Hamer Hall
Free

Image:
Mask designed and made by Mirka Mora for the Messenger in Medea
Hoopla! Playbox Theatre, Melbourne, 1979.
Gift of Playbox Theatre Company, 1980

Spotlighting Musicals

To coincide with the launch of EVITA, this display celebrates the highly successful partnership between Opera Australia and The Gordon Frost Organisation. Much-loved musicals such as The King and I, My Fair Lady and South Pacific are highlighted through a selection of costumes, photographs and designs.

15 December 2018 to 3 March 2019
Smorgon Family Plaza
Free

Image: Costume design by Roger Kirk for The King and I, John Frost and Adelaide Festival Centre, 1996
Gift of Roger Kirk, 2014. Arts Centre Melbourne, Australian Performing Arts Collection